Naver founder and board chairman Lee Hae-jin (이해진), CEO Choi Soo-yeon (최수연) and CFO Kim Hee-cheol (김희철), along with other top executives, will visit the headquarters of global alternative asset manager Brookfield in Toronto, Canada, early this week. The trip is seen as aimed at investment talks to secure infrastructure such as data centres and power needed to build an artificial intelligence (AI) factory.

Industry sources said on July 20 that key executives from affiliated units will also join the visit. It is considered unusual for a founder, CEO and CFO to visit the headquarters of an overseas company at the same time. With the CFO in charge of investment and finance joining the trip, speculation is growing that talks on the investment structure and size have advanced significantly. The expected investment is discussed as at least in the trillions of won.

The industry expects Naver executives to meet senior Brookfield officials to focus on investment and funding plans to build an AI factory that includes data centres. An AI factory is a facility that provides large-scale computing capacity by combining AI models and cloud technology on a physical foundation that includes graphics processing unit (GPU) servers, data centres, and power and cooling equipment. While existing data centres were closer to storing and processing data needed for search, shopping and email, an AI factory is distinguished as a facility that uses such data as raw material to produce AI outputs.

Brookfield is a global alternative asset manager headquartered in Canada, with assets under management exceeding $1 trillion. It invests across areas such as infrastructure, energy, real estate, private equity and credit, and in November last year it launched an AI infrastructure investment programme worth up to $100 billion with Nvidia and the Kuwait Investment Authority. The programme targets investment across AI infrastructure, from securing power and land to data centres and computing resources such as GPUs.

Naver has been pushing to build a gigawatt-scale global AI factory through technology cooperation with Nvidia. It plans to start operations in the first half of next year with 55 megawatts, then expand to 100 megawatts that year including overseas infrastructure, and to 200 megawatts by 2028, ultimately building 1 gigawatt-scale infrastructure. While its cooperation with Nvidia is focused on GPUs, servers and building an AI technology ecosystem, the Brookfield visit is reported to be largely aimed at funding for hard infrastructure such as data centres, power and land.

The specific investment method has not yet been confirmed. It is widely known, however, that it is more likely to take the form of a joint investment for the data centre and AI factory business, or project financing, rather than an equity investment. It is hard to conclude that the investment talks are in their final stage based solely on the executives' headquarters visit, and the specific investment size and terms are expected to be decided after further discussions between the two sides.

A Naver official said of the visit and whether it is holding investment talks, "There is nothing we can confirm."